The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bolton Wanderers is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ben Wodskou was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles James is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Unión de Santa Fe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unión de Santa Fe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Unión de Santa Fe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Unión de Santa Fe have gone to Central Córdoba SdE with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unión de Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Unión de Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unión de Santa Fe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Unión de Santa Fe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Unión de Santa Fe has to find a result from somewhere.
Elián Giménez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Unión de Santa Fe can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Gutiérrez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Unión de Santa Fe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bautista Chitarroni and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Unión de Santa Fe will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Unión de Santa Fe has been clear about where Maximiliano de los Santos stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Unión de Santa Fe know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Yfran will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Unión de Santa Fe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Thiago Yfran has agreed terms with Gimnasia La Plata for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Lautaro Rastelli and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Unión de Santa Fe will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutAlan Sosa has become a man the manager trusts